In recent years, qingyuan's bookish atmosphere has become more and more intense. The picture shows parents accompanying their children to read in the Xinhua Bookstore in Qingyuan Shunying Times Square. Photo by Liang Suya
The mobile bookstore is convenient for the public to read. Photo by Liang Suya
Qingyuan strives to build a book-scented city and promote reading for all. The picture shows the intelligent library of Zhongnan Village in Qingxin District. Photo by Liang Suya
Recently, the selection list of "Guangdong Children's Reading Stars" was released, and 3 municipal "Reading Stars" recommended by Qingyuan were listed. The three of them borrowed 280, 428 and 471 books per year at the Qingyuan Public Library last year. Among them, the youngest Pan Yitong is only 4 years old.
"Although children are young, daily reading is indispensable." Pan Yitong's mother, Ms. Gong, said a simple sentence, but in fact, Qingyuan's big goal in cultural construction - the Eighth Party Congress of Qingyuan City proposed to focus on building a city of books and strive to achieve that there is no shortage of material "grain" and spiritual "grain".
What is the current situation of reading for all people in Qingyuan and what are the shortcomings? How to build a book city and what is its significance? On the occasion of the "4.23" World Reading Day, the reporter learned through field visits, and interviewed a number of citizens, bookstore operators, cultural circles, etc. to talk about their feelings and make suggestions, contributing insights to the city full of book fragrance.
●Nanfang Daily reporter Chen Likai
Atmosphere creation
"Soft and hard" allows citizens to feel the joy of reading
In recent years, the atmosphere of Qingyuan books has become more intense, and the most intuitive embodiment is the addition and repair of a series of reading facilities.
The reporter recently came to the core area of Yanhu New City and saw that Qingyuan's "four halls and one center" is in an intense and orderly construction stage. Among them, the new Qingyuan City Library was capped in May last year and is scheduled to be completed by the end of September this year. It is understood that the library has 2,000 reading seats, the total number of books in the future target collection reaches 1.5 million, and the target daily average of 3,000 readers.
"The new library is a key cultural facility construction project in our city, a people's livelihood project, which is of great significance to providing better public cultural services for the citizens and meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the masses." Huang Xiaomei, deputy director of Qingyuan City Library, said that after the completion of the new library, it will become a new landmark of Qingyuan culture, and the cluster effect of the cultural front will be condensed with the surrounding venues, which will play an important role in promoting the high-quality development of public cultural services in Qingyuan.
Up to now, in addition to 2 public libraries in The city of Qingyuan and 1 in each county (city, district), the universities and primary and secondary schools in the provincial vocational education city have basically covered the construction of on-campus libraries to meet the reading needs of social people, students and other groups.
"While enjoying the lake view and tasting the aroma of tea and books, this kind of space allows visitors to have a richer and more diversified time to rest." Mr. Wu, a tourist from Foshan, who accompanied his family to the Qingyuan Niuyuzui Scenic Area on New Year's Day this year, was pleasantly surprised when he saw the Cantonese Book Bar built on the edge of the scenic Bicui Lake.
It is understood that since 2019, Qingyuan City Library has cooperated with the society to build 10 new reading spaces such as Love Reading Study, Xinggu Branch Library, Olympic Sports Branch Library and Niuyuzui Book Bar, with a total library area of more than 1,400 square meters and a total collection of more than 20,000 books, covering communities, tourist attractions, industrial parks, etc., to meet the reading needs of different groups.
In addition to the drastic hardware construction, Qingyuan also focuses on innovating in software, enriching the reading experience of citizens through various activities and allowing citizens to feel the joy of reading.
"Teacher take you to the Forbidden City today!" Under the curious gaze of the children, the library staff slowly unfolded "Open the Forbidden City", which was 3.2 meters long and included 78 three-dimensional scrolls of clever interactive mechanisms, which caused the children to exclaim. This is a scene on the eve of the Spring Festival, when qingyuan city library went to the Cantonese book bar in Yingde Lianzhang Village to carry out grassroots volunteer activities under the culture of "Golden Tiger New Year Happy and Auspicious Rui".
In addition to the grassroots activities under culture, Qingyuan also carries out diversified reading theme activities for different groups, including the "Qingtu Lecture Hall" suitable for all ages, the Qingtu story "Painting" for young children aged 3-8, the holiday activity "Qingyu Children's Walk" for left-behind children, the children of migrant workers and other minors, the "Picture Book Reading into the Countryside" and other activities for picture book lovers in grass-roots rural areas, as well as a series of activities such as "Shuxiang Volunteering into the Campus" and "Shuxiang Volunteering into the Community".
"Soft and hard at the same time" makes the fragrance of books full of Qingyuan. According to the "Guangdong Provincial National Reading Index Report (2020)", the Qingyuan National Reading Index and the provincial ranking in 2020 have increased compared with the previous year, ranking tenth in the province and second in the northern region of Guangdong.
Insufficient short board
Ease of reading and funding for activities need to be improved
Although Qingyuan has achieved obvious results in creating a reading atmosphere, compared with the cities in the Pearl River Delta, there is still a lot of room for progress. In 2020, the Qingyuan National Reading Index rose to 58.33, still lower than the provincial average (63.95), and the gap between Guangzhou (92.43) and Shenzhen (91.49) was obvious.
Mr. Fang, a citizen who lives near Renmin Road, was promoted to "Grandpa" this year, and his career is in an upward period, and he is often busy. Even so, he maintained a love of reading, but rarely borrowed books today. "Busy is on the one hand, on the other hand, it is very inconvenient to borrow books and return books." He said his home is a 10-minute drive from the nearest library, and he often forgets to return books because he is too busy, "If only there was a library downstairs." ”
"Qingyuan lacks mobile bookstores." Li Daiquan, chairman of the Qingyuan Literary and Art Critics Association and winner of China's first "Excellent Book House", said for example, in meixian district of Meizhou City, in addition to the Cantonese book bar, as of the end of last year, 25 "reading mobile stations" were set up in the whole district, which greatly facilitated residents to read. Therefore, he suggested that the relevant departments set up more mobile bookstores to make books available everywhere.
Compared with the pearl river delta cities, insufficient funding is a real problem faced by qingyuan city libraries. As the main position of the city's reading space, Qingyuan City Library has long insisted on carrying out various reading activities, and insufficient funds restrict the efficient development of reading activities, which has affected the creation of urban reading atmosphere to a certain extent.
"Now the paper books in bookstores are often tens of yuan." Hou Kaiming, general manager of Qingyuan Xinhua Bookstore Co., Ltd., told reporters that due to the rise in the price of ink, paper and other materials, the price of books in the past two years has also been at a high level. "For readers, such a price is very unintendable, reducing their desire to buy books." She said that the price increase led to a decline in sales, and the operation of physical bookstores was also affected.
Hou Kaiming believes that at present, many bookstores on the Internet have a large "full reduction" discount, and physical bookstores are forced by large operating costs, and it is difficult to give the same preferential treatment. "It is understandable for readers to buy books online in order to save money, but after all, online shopping cannot see the physical object first, and it is difficult to avoid and hold accountable pirated books, which will destroy the reader's reading experience."
Therefore, Hou Kaiming suggested that consumer subsidies and preferential policies should be given to the purchase of books by the public, and readers should be promoted to buy books in physical bookstores, "on the one hand, it stimulates readers to read and consume, on the other hand, it also supports genuine books, protects intellectual property rights, and is conducive to creating a good book market environment." ”
■ Viewpoint
Building a bookish city is not constrained by economic standards
Regarding how to define the city of books, as early as 2015, the Library Society of China formulated the "Standard Index System for The City of Books (County Level)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard") according to the requirements of "advocating reading for all people and building a book society", and put forward quantitative indicators accordingly. By 2020, according to the Opinions on Promoting Reading for All issued by the Central Propaganda Department, the City of Books has been clearly regarded as an important part of strengthening the publicity and promotion of reading for the whole people.
"At present, the connotation and extension of the book city need to be reconsidered." Industry insiders pointed out that due to the profound changes in citizens' reading habits by the changes of the times and technological changes, "books" are no longer just traditional paper books, but their connotation and extension extend to electronic books and digital books, and the carrier is extended from paper to computers, mobile phones, electronic readers, etc. "Incense" no longer only refers to creating a reading atmosphere, but begins to require readers to have the ability to screen, analyze, and evaluate content.
For the goal of "focusing on building a book city" proposed by Qingyuan, some experts familiar with Qingyuan pointed out that the economic level does not hinder the construction of a book city. The expansion of the connotation of traditional books means that the requirements for the bottom building of the economy to create a book city are reduced, and more rely on the attention and publicity of government departments in their daily work, reading promotion helps to improve the reputation and satisfaction of citizens with the city, and the improvement of citizens' quality and literacy will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the economy.
Based on the current situation, the expert gave suggestions from four aspects -
The first is to make full use of social resources. Qingyuan should attach importance to free and high-quality e-reading resources and expand their popularity at the level of the public. "It is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish", so that citizens can understand how to obtain resources that interest them through mobile reading, on the one hand, to promote reading, on the other hand, to increase the reading experience of citizens.
The second is to make full use of social forces. In recent years, Qingyuan has built new reading spaces such as the Love Reading Study Room and the Niuyuzui Branch Library, which are worth promoting. It pays attention to social cooperation and social co-construction, which means that the requirements for government funds are not high, and at the same time, it is also an improvement for social forces such as enterprises. Qingyuan can make the impact of new reading spaces bigger, starting from the number and promoting more reading spaces to land in the city; it can also start from the scope of coverage and build new reading spaces in more locations, such as cooperating with investors to build a new reading space within the community.
The third is to create libraries and bookstores with a sense of reading experience. For example, "one-stop" self-service libraries, readers do not have to visit the library in person, are not limited by the opening and closing time of the library, can borrow books, return books, apply for library cards on the side of the road, and enjoy the library's pre-loan and delivery services, such new libraries and bookstores will enhance the reading experience of readers.
The fourth is to popularize information literacy education. In the era of information explosion, to build a book city, it is not only necessary to improve the reading interest and longevity of citizens, but also to improve the ability of citizens to obtain, identify, analyze and evaluate information.
■ Sound
The construction of a bookish city is of great significance to the growth of the next generation
"The construction of a bookish city is conducive to the cultivation of a family reading atmosphere, which is of great significance to the growth of the next generation." Li Daiquan is very much in recognition of the benefits of reading.
Li Daiquan told reporters that because he personally attaches great importance to reading, the child has grown up in the fragrance of books since childhood, and his grades have long been among the best, and now he is studying at a famous university, "The grades are still on the one hand, and more importantly, he has always been open-minded and has a wide range of interests, which is inseparable from the influence of reading since childhood." ”
Li Daiquan introduced that he often encourages children to memorize ancient poems to cultivate their sentiments, and over time children have a good understanding of literary and historical poetry. Some friends around them know that children will be more suitable for liberal arts than the science and engineering they are studying today. In this regard, Li Daiquan did not agree. He believes that reading is enlightening and cultivates the ability to remember and understand, which is conducive to the development of any profession. Especially in today's era of pursuing compound talents, extensive reading habits are more important to shape children's "huigen".
Pan Yitong's mother, Ms. Gong, has a more direct understanding of reading and a deeper feeling. Since she started working, she has encountered a wall due to her low academic qualifications, and she has begun to realize the importance of reading, so she pays attention to cultivating children's reading habits from an early age, and often accompanies children to the library to borrow books. Last year, the young Pan Yitong borrowed 280 books in the library, and was recommended to participate in the 2021 "Guangdong Children's Reading Star" and successfully listed.
Nowadays, Pan Yitong, who has been reading picture books for a long time and always pestering his mother to tell stories before going to bed, has a richer knowledge than his peers around him, "Many things have been understood before we teach her, and I know from books when I ask." Ms. Gong said.